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5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students. My first year teaching a literacy coach came to observe my classroom. After the students left, she commented on how I asked the whole class a question, would wait just a few seconds, and then answer it myself. "It's cute," she added. Um, I don't think she thought it was so cute. I think she was treading lightly on the ever-so shaky ego of a brand-new teacher while still giving me some very necessary feedback.
Teaching Young Children About Bias, Diversity, and Social Justice. When my daughter was three years old, I taught her the word "stereotype.

" She was just beginning to string words together into sentences, had determined that pink was definitely not her favorite color, and asked (demanded, actually) why all the "girl stuff" was pink and the "boy stuff" was blue. Because there's no three-year-old version for a word describing why colors are gendered in our society, I figured that planting the seed might yield fruit soon enough.
Education Research Highlights From 2016. In 2016, we learned more about how teachers feel about their profession, from the reasons why they started teaching in the first place (#1) to why they leave (#6).

We learned that science students do better when teachers share stories about the struggles scientists face instead of portraying them as geniuses (#3). We’re also learning more about why U.S. students are falling behind students in other countries (#12). Here are 15 studies published this year that every educator should know about. 1. It Turns Out Teaching Really Is a Noble Profession Altruism drives many people to become teachers, according to this survey of over 3,000 public school teachers. Rentner, D.S., Kober, N., & Frizzell, M. (2016). 2.

Are kindergartners spending too much time on academics?
10 Truths About Building School Teams. I've spent the last ten years serving on and attempting to build effective teams of educators -- to various degrees of success.

This last year, I've been writing a lot about team development. I first articulated the following "ten truths" for myself when I coached a team some years ago. I used these to remind myself of what it would take to build a resilient, high-performing team that worked in challenging contexts. I was hesitant to call them "truths," but these ideas have been tried and tested, and they feel truer to me than anything else when building a team. Here they are: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Reflecting on Yourself as a Leader. It took me a long, long time to accept the notion that as a teacher, I was also a leader; that as a department chair, I was also a leader; and that as a coach, I was also a leader.

This was because I was operating within traditional definitions of leadership: I didn't have a formal leadership title -- like principal -- nor did I have any kind of certificate or degree granting me the role and responsibilities. But I was a leader -- for my students and for my colleagues -- because leadership has much more to do with how we think about what we do and why than it does about formal titles and degrees.

And I imagine that many of you are also leaders whether you're aware of it or not.
Energy and Calm: Brain Breaks and Focused-Attention Practices. When presented with new material, standards, and complicated topics, we need to be focused and calm as we approach our assignments.

We can use brain breaks and focused-attention practices to positively impact our emotional states and learning. They refocus our neural circuitry with either stimulating or quieting practices that generate increased activity in the prefrontal cortex, where problem solving and emotional regulation occur. Brain Breaks A brain break is a short period of time when we change up the dull routine of incoming information that arrives via predictable, tedious, well-worn roadways. Our brains are wired for novelty.
Kindness: A Lesson Plan. National Random Acts of Kindness Day, February 17, is a day when acts of kindness are encouraged and celebrated by people and organizations throughout this country.

February is also the month when many celebrate Valentine’s Day—a day devoted to love. Young students pass out small greeting cards bought in bulk to all their classmates, and older students have “Heartgrams” delivered to each other during the class period before lunch time. If you’re a teacher (or think back to your K–12 school days), what feelings does this day invoke?

There are lots of hugs, smiles, and laughter (and candy), and more importantly, feelings of being cared for, seen, cherished, liked, admired, and even loved. Aren’t these emotions we’d like to foster everyday? So why not celebrate and practice kindness intentionally in our classrooms and schools more routinely? Kick-Start Kindness: Activities 1. 2. Each student writes their name at the top of their paper, and you collect them. 3. 4. 5.
Inquiry-Based Learning: Developing Student-Driven Questions. Defining Inquiry.